ALISON SAAR ALISON SAAR BREACH ALISON SAAR

BREACH

Williams Center Gallery Lafayette College, Easton Pennsylvania

2017 Published in conjunction with the exhibition Artwork copyright © 2014, 2016, 2017 by Alison Saar Alison Saar, Breach “mami wata (or how to know a goddess when you see Introduction Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery one)” © 2016 Evie Shockley Lafayette College “Unminded (LETHE)” ©2016 Samiya Bashir We are delighted to have the opportunity to exhibit Breach presented opportunities for interdisciplinary Easton, Pennsylvania 18042 Alison Saar’s Breach, a body of work informed by the Great collaborations on and off campus. “Confluence,” a series September 17– December 17, 2016 Catalogue compilation copyright © 2017, Lafayette Mississippi Flood of 1927. The exhibition had its genesis in of lectures, performances, and films presented in the fall College Art Galleries, Easton, Pennsylvania 18042 Saar’s 2014 residency at Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking semester, not only placed the flood of 1927 into a historical The College of Wooster Art Museum (CWAM) Institute (EPI). Saar, subsequently named the 2016–17 and contemporary context but included a broad range of topics Sussel Gallery, Ebert Art Center Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Artist in Residence by related to rivers and waterways. Programs ranged from a site- 1220 Beall Ave. Essays copyright © 2017 by authors Kitty McManus Zurko the Department of Art, also was selected to deliver the 2016 specific dance performance, discussions about flooding along Wooster, Ohio 44691 and John M. Barry David L. Sr. and Helen J. Temple Lecture. the Delaware River, the lingering effects of Jim Crow, Ta-Nehisi January 17–March 10, 2017 In an early discussion about the exhibition I described both Coates’ Between the World and Me; to presentations about Published by Lafayette College Art Galleries, Morris R. Williams the Lafayette galleries—one in the Williams Center for the Mami Wata, the African and female water Arts, and the second, the Grossman Gallery in the Williams deity. A list of the programs can be found on page 46. University of Tennessee at Knoxville Center for the Arts, Easton, Pennsylvania Visual Arts Building—and let her select the one in which she Downtown Gallery In 2017—the 90th anniversary of the Great Mississippi would like to exhibit. She quickly determined the Grossman 106 S. Gay St. River Flood—this compelling body of work also will be shown Edited by Stevie O. Daniels and Kathryne Keck-Harris Gallery—situated over the Bushkill Creek and a block from Knoxville, Tennessee 37902 at four academic museum venues: the College of Wooster Art April 7–29, 2017 the Delaware River—was the perfect location for a proposed Museum, Ohio; University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery, Designed by Heather Reinert and Michiko Okaya exhibition about the relationship of and Knoxville; Wrather West Kentucky Museum, Murray State Typeset in Scala Sans by Heather Reinert rivers. She wanted to explore such themes as the “politics University; and University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington. Murray State University Printed by Cenveo Publisher Services, Lancaster, Pennsylvania of people of color living in floodplains and the history of the Clara M. Eagle Gallery U.S. government’s negligence in flood control policy that Wrather West Kentucky Museum puts those populations at risk.” Michiko Okaya 100 University Drive “Breach” definition, page 2, from oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ As Kitty McManus Zurko describes in her catalogue essay, Director of Lafayette Art Galleries Murray, Kentucky 42071 Saar was in New Orleans in 2013 for a residency at the Joan June 9–August 22, 2017 ISBN: 978-0-9982772-1-9 Mitchell Center. She was dismayed to see how little had been done to rebuild African American communities devastated University of Kentucky Art Museum by Hurricane Katrina eight years earlier. Upon her return Rose Street and Euclid Ave. All rights reserved. Except for what section 107 of home to , she began researching the histories Lexington, Kentucky 40506 the Copyright Act of 1976 permits as “fair use,” no of American floods and effects on African Americans. The September 9–December 3, 2017 part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 piqued her interest. a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by Though few now know of this historic catastrophe, the 1927 any means electronic or mechanical, photocopied, flood, described as one of the worst natural river disasters recorded, or other, without permission of the in U.S. history, had a profound impact on the life of African publishers. The opinions expressed are those of the Americans living in the Mississippi Delta and brought long- authors and do not necessarily reflect views of the term social, cultural, federal policy, and political changes to exhibiting organizations. the . The exhibition would not have been possible without The Lafayette Art Galleries and the Experimental Printmaking Saar’s enthusiastic cooperation. Additionally, College of Institute (EPI) receives state arts funding support through a Wooster Art Museum’s Director/Curator Kitty McManus grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency Zurko wrote the insightful essay about Saar’s artwork funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the included here. John M. Barry, award-winning author of National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, provides a brief summary of the causes and long-term consequences of the event. Many thanks to poet Evie Shockley, who wrote “mami wata (how to know a goddess when you see one),” for her collaboration with Saar on the artist’s book of the same name. Poet Samiya Bashir’s “Unminded (LETHE),” “Consumption (PHLEGETHON),” “LAMENTATIONS ON THE ESPLANADE (COCYTUS),” “FLO/W/OE (ACHERON),” and “REALM AND COIN (STYX)” are the poemtags of Hades D.W.P., II. “Unminded (LETHE)” is reproduced in this publication.

Alison Saar, Acheron, detail from Hades D.W.P., II, 2016 1 breach /bre CH/

noun 1. an act of breaking or failing to observe a law, agreement, or code of conduct. “a breach of confidence” 2. a gap in a wall, barrier, or defense, especially one made by an attacking army.

verb 1. make a gap in and break through (a wall, barrier, or defense). “the river breached its bank”

2 3 Breach, 2016 wood, ceiling tin, found trunks, washtubs, and miscellaneous objects Introduction ...... 1 Installation at Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College. Contents Kitty McManus Zurko, Alison Saar’s Breach...... 6 Walls stained with acrylic, Bushkill Creek water, silt, and mud Alison Saar and Evie Shockley, Overleaf: detail of Alison Saar, Breach mami wata (or how to know a goddess when you see one)...... 30 John M. Barry, Great Mississippi Flood of 1927: A 75-Mile Inland Sea...... 36 Checklist ...... 43 Biography...... 44 Resources ...... 48 Acknowledgments...... 49 4 5 Alison Saar’s Breach Kitty McManus Zurko

Rivers flow along serenely and silently until they do histories, and cultural signifiers coalesce into a timely the failing levees.3 Because African Americans were near rivers in the first place; what has been the effect not. These multifaceted bodies of water functioned conversation that asks us to consider today’s divisive critical to the sharecropping economy of Southern of flooding on blacks and others living in flood-prone historically as points of entrée for exploration, trade racial relations by reflecting on a disastrous flood that plantations at the time, many blacks were forced into areas; and how have such disasters influenced music, routes, centers of commerce, and generators of fertile took place in 1927. relief camps on the Greenville levees and guarded art, and literature? agricultural regions. Like all great rivers, those in To start at the beginning of this particular tale, at gunpoint to discourage them from fleeing north, Her answers begin with four 2015 paintings on America carry the residue of past and present Saar was one of 24 Foundation grant as many others had since the beginning of the Great found and pieced together table linens and sugar 4 cultures as well as the metaphorical burden of recipients selected to participate in the Joan Mitchell Migration in 1910. and seed sacks. In these works, the artist explores human projection and reflection. Center’s 2013 Artist-in-Residence Pilot Program in Although what happened during Katrina still the humanity-preserving response to catastrophe Most riverine myths and beliefs focus on destruction New Orleans. During the three-week residency, she survives in our nation’s collective consciousness by focusing on the incongruity of what she calls, and salvation. Such myths are rooted in the delicate frequently rode her bike through the primarily black (recall the horrifying images of mostly African “dancing in the face of disaster.”5 Each painting’s balance between punishing floods that wreak havoc on Lower Ninth Ward and Treme areas where, eight Americans stranded for days in brutal heat in compound title comes from two sources: bodies of those living nearby while simultaneously replenishing years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, the Louisiana Superdome and on the Interstate water intermittently replenished by floods such as water habitats and soils. Never the same from one she was struck by the damage still evident in these 10 overpass), the bitter lessons of the traumatic backwaters, swamps, and sloughs or slues, and early moment to the next, these flowing wellsprings of neighborhoods, and unkept government promises to Great Flood have receded with time like the waters 20th-century music by and about the experiences life have a unique ability to both connect and divide rebuild homes. This experience led Saar to research themselves. Saar’s research into river- and flood- of blacks during the Great Flood. Rooted in gospel humanity. These connections and divisions are the the history of flooding by major rivers in America and generated disasters led her to consider questions music, these songs migrated north and planted the subject of Breach, a 2015–16 body of work by Los the striking similarities between the Great Mississippi such as: why are African Americans drawn to living seeds of what became known as the Blues. Angeles-based artist Alison Saar. River Flood of 1927 and Katrina.2 Throughout a career spanning more than three While what happened in 1927 cannot be fully decades, Saar has consistently hewn to the 1960s- described here (see John M. Barry’s essay in this era slogan “the personal is political.”1 Ever the visual catalogue for more information about the Great storyteller, the artist traverses both terrains—the Flood), in short, after months of heavy rain, rivers personal and the political—by incisively drilling into in the Midwest and the South inundated over 16 Lord, Lord, Lord, I’m so blue my house got washed away, issues such as identity, motherhood, feminism, race, million acres of land ranging from Oklahoma to And I’m crying “how long for another pay day” and politics. Tennessee and from Missouri to Louisiana. Especially That’s why I’m crying Mississippi heavy water blues. Her compelling sculpture, paintings, drawings, and hard hit were over 27,000 square miles in Arkansas, prints have many influences. Among them are the Mississippi, and Louisiana. Over 630,000 people varied beliefs and energies embodied in , the were affected. Of that number, more than 200,000 I’m sitting here looking at all of this mud, origins and stylistic force of German Expressionism, were African Americans. One of the more profoundly and the unmediated candor of folk art. Most of disturbing chapters in the history of race relations in And my girl got washed away in that Mississippi flood… all, Saar’s work privileges communicative clarity America occurred during the flood when the levees without being didactic. In Breach, the artist’s well- above Greenville, Mississippi, gave way, and blacks “Mississippi Heavy Water Blues,” Robert Hicks (Barbecue Bob), 1927 known practice of synthesizing disparate ideologies, living nearby were conscripted to work on shoring up

6 7 Breach, 2016 wood, ceiling tin, found trunks, washtubs, and miscellaneous objects

The figures inBackwater Boogie and Sluefoot Slide bestows wealth and fertility. Variants of this powerful (pp. 12–13) are shoeless as they dance in water up and quixotic water deity are honored in shrines on to their knees and ankles. Sightless, they move in both sides of the Atlantic.8 a seemingly dissociative state, as if aware of being Saar’s artist book mami wata (or, how to know objectified, but concealing their true selves. In this a goddess when you see one), 2016 (pp. 30–33), sense, they exemplify what, in his 1897 essay “Strivings was produced at Lafayette College’s Experimental of the Negro People,” W.E.B. Du Bois called “double Printmaking Institute (EPI). Housed in an altered consciousness” and “two-ness” to describe the box, this project was a collaboration between Saar feeling of having two identities—that of being “... and contemporary poet Evie Shockley. Shockley’s an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two three-part poem in the artist’s book speaks to human unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark projection onto nature through the creation of water body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from spirits whose powers parallel the life-giving and life- 6 being torn asunder.” taking nature of water itself. Printed on stained fabric, While this Adam and Eve pair reside in the Shockley’s poem “mami speaks” is formatted in a earthly realm, the figures inSwampside Shag and zigzag pattern reminiscent of both a snake and the MuddyWater Mambo (pp. 14–15) are immersed in an fish-like tail of La Sirène, one of the many incarnations aqueous domain, floating in “heavy” indigo blue water. of Mami Wata. Three pages in the book are printed on Somehow, these otherworldly figures seem more real water-dissolvable paper, suggesting the transformative as they interact with catfish and peer into a mirror. and mutable nature of water environments as well as Swampside Shag and MuddyWater Mambo continue offerings to Mami Wata. Saar’s long-running dialogue with the fluidity of Two small wood sculptures from 2016, Silttown cultural appropriation and re-appropriation. In Shimmy and Black Bottom Stomp (pp. 16–17), echo Swampside Shag, the catfish are painted in a manner the figures in the four paintings described above in that recalls the sinuous movement of koi in European that the sculptures have stolid, strong, twisting bodies 19th-century Japonisme-style paintings and prints.7 that project a strong sense of self-possession. They The woman in MuddyWater Mambo peers into a hand also are embedded with commentary on the circular mirror reflecting the face of Greek goddess Lethe nature of influences. Specifically,Silttown Shimmy whose attributes include spewing memory-obliterating references a sculpture Saar first encountered in the water from her mouth, while the mirror itself 1980s at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art references Mami Wata, or “Mother Water,” a powerful (LACMA)—Dancer with Necklace, 1910, by Ernst half-human, half-fish water spirit usually depicted Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880–1938). Kirchner in and countries of the African Diasporas as was a founding member of a group of German a mermaid with long hair and a serpent around her Expressionist artists in Dresden in 1905 called Die neck, holding a mirror. According to art historian Brücke (the bridge), and his wood sculpture was Henry John Drewal, Mami Wata emerged in Africa inspired by the Cameroon and Palau art he studied in around the 15th century in response to European the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden (Ethnographical contact, and “straddles earth and water, culture and Museum Dresden). As the Los Angeles Times art critic nature.” A composite of Western and Central African Christopher Knight so aptly noted in a 2016 review, water spirits, Mami Wata represents danger but also Silttown Shimmy’s “... oblique reference to it [Dancer

8 9 with Necklace] reminds us that European Modern morphed into searing commentary on the national or spirit, Yemoja, whose name means “Mother whose Cumulatively, the intent behind the paintings, art in the 20th century is unthinkable without its disgrace of the toxic water supply in the mostly black children are like fish.” InAcheron , the clothed figure sculpture, drawings, and prints in Breach merge into profound, complex relationship to African art.”9 city of Flint, Michigan. In this work, Saar etched five stands up to her waist in what we surmise from the a flood of consciousness we would be well advised to Perhaps the most visually arresting work in this glass jugs and jars with figures in distress. Each glass title to be a river of pain. She carries a loaded basin on heed. Although the Great Flood may seem as if it has exhibition, however, is the over 12-foot tall showtitling vessel is labeled with the name of each mythological her head beneath a dark and ominous black sky. The no bearing on today, Katrina and Flint prove otherwise sculpture Breach, 2016 (p. 8). A virtual lexicon of river: Acheron, river of pain; Phlegethon, river of fire; sliver of light on the horizon signals either dawn or as they painfully exposed the still corrosive and Saar’s favored materials—wood, found objects, and Lethe, river of forgetfulness; Styx, main river of hatred; dusk. The confident figure inAcheron looks straight at festering divisiveness of race relations in this country. ceiling tin—the figure’s sense of equilibrium and and Cocytus, river of wailing. Chipped enamel ladles us, and the gravitas of the work slowly materializes as In this compelling body of work, Alison Saar asks us confidence has no equal in the artist’s oeuvre. Covered and cups hang in front of each of the vessels, and five our gaze drifts down to the reflection in the water to to consider the psychic “breach” embedded in these in tin ceiling tiles suggestive of ritual scarification, poems by Samiya Bashir, also a contemporary poet, reveal the true weight of the load she carries—human shared histories because when the levees of life give the life-size figure stands on a pallet-cum-raft with are printed on muslin strips and tied to the jug and skulls, universal symbol of death. way, the political is most definitely the personal. her punt pole at the ready. The superstructure she jar handles. Each poem’s staccato prose lingers on For everyone. carries on her head is taller and wider than the figure, or repeats phrases such as “the absurdity of living,” and is comprised of what might be hastily assembled “how much longer?,” and “let go.” Light shines travel necessities such as trunks and suitcases, and through the acidic green and rust-colored water to domestic needs such as pans, buckets, washbasin and metaphorically expose both the hidden “river” of lead washboard, lantern, and mirror. More than anything, pipes in Flint, and the 2014 decision by that city’s Notes this gravity-defying load speaks to the limits of human managers to use water from the polluted Flint River instead of the water supply previously purchased endurance (pp. 3, 45). 1. Although the phrase “the personal is political” has become so 5. Alison Saar, interview with the author, July 8, 2016. from . This national disgrace came to light In this homage to strength, Saar intentionally widely used that authorship is almost irrelevant, the phrase stems 6. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, “Strivings of the Negro People,” Atlantic slowly after city residents noticed that their tap water from a title given by editors Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt to Monthly, August 1897, 194. makes connections between Atlas, Greek god of an essay by Carol Hanisch published in Notes from the Second Year: was discolored. City water tests in 2015 revealed lead 7. A French term, Japonisme was first used in the late-19th century endurance, and the Senegalese women and children Women’s Liberation, Major Writings of the Radical Feminists (New content in Flint’s residential water to be seven times York: Radical Feminists, 1970). to describe the influence of Japanese art and design on Western she encountered during a visit to Senegal in 2006. culture, and, in particular, on European art. the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for lead in 2. The Lower Ninth Ward and the Treme were flooded in August Essentially mobile agents of commerce, these African 8. Henry John Drewal, Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa drinking water.11 2005 by storm surge that came up the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet women and children routinely balance gravity-defying after Hurricane Katrina made landfall east of New Orleans. The and Its Diasporas (Los Angeles, California: Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2008), 23–25. loads of calabashes and other market goods on their Both Silted Brow, 2016, and Acheron, 2016 (pp. force of the surge caused two major breaches in the Industrial Canal located to the west of the Lower Ninth Ward. 9. Christopher Knight, review of “Alison Saar Traces Diasporas in the 22–23), are pithy examples of Saar’s wit and skill in heads with the same grace and equanimity as the 3. A levee or revetment is a sloping structure placed adjacent to Exceptional ‘Silt, Soot and Smut’ at L.A. Louver Gallery,” Los Angeles figure inBreach . transforming found materials. Drawn on sugar and rivers or streams. Intended to hold back seasonal floodwater, levee Times, June 17, 2016. seed sacks attached to the bottom of trunk drawers, breaches can occur naturally during floods through overtopping or 10. Alison Saar, written correspondence to author, received August On the other side of this tale lies Saar’s hard-hitting the artist’s use of secondary surfaces as a substrate crevassing, or when they are intentionally blown to relieve flooding 29, 2016. installation Hades D.W.P., II (pp. 18–21), 2016, and downstream. 11. Merrit Kennedy, “Lead-Laced Water in Flint: A Step-By-Step Look for drawing suggests that there is always more to two drawings, Acheron, 2016, and Silted Brow, 2016. 4. The Great Migration took place from 1910–70, and refers to the at the Makings of a Crisis,” NPR, April 20, 2016, npr.org/sections/ any story than first meets the eye. InSilted Brow, the movement of 6 million African Americans from the rural South thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step- According to the artist, Hades D.W.P., II (D.W.P. horizontal figure lies beneath the dark water with her to urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and West. Cities that by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis. stands for Department of Water and Power in Los saw the greatest number of transplants include St. Louis, Chicago, head awkwardly angled, as if she has a broken neck. Angeles) began as a nexus between the five stages Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and New York. Catfish swim languidly above. Paired with the female of grief and recovery and the five rivers of death in figure they reference the Nigerian Yoruba water orisha Greek mythology. However, the installation eventually

Kitty McManus Zurko, Director/Curator, The College of Wooster Art Museum (CWAM), has organized and curated over 65 exhibitions. Some of her projects include solo exhibitions of artists such as Ann Hamilton, Lorna Simpson, Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Shirin Neshat, Jim Campbell, and Hiraki Sawa. The author lives in Wooster, Ohio.

10 11 Backwater Boogie, 2015 Sluefoot Slide, 2015 acrylic, gesso, and acrylic, gesso, and charcoal on found charcoal on found sugar sacks and linens sugar sacks and linens

12 13 Swampside Shag, 2015 MuddyWater Mambo, 2015 acrylic, gesso, and charcoal acrylic, gesso, and on found and dyed denim, charcoal on found and sugar sacks, and linens dyed denim, sugar sacks, and linens

14 15 Far left: Silttown Shimmy, 2016 wood, ceiling tin, enamel, paint, tar, and silt Private Collection

Black Bottom Stomp, 2016 wood, acrylics, ceiling tin, silt, tar, and wax

16 17 Hades D.W.P, II, 2016 etched glass jars, water, dye, wood, cloth and ink transfer, electronics, found ladles and cups; poems by Samiya Bashir

18 19 Unminded (LETHE)

it’s over

struggle

it burns

remember

drink

forget

how quickly you laugh

forget

the absurdity of living

by my apple

i promise

nothing

i promise

nothing

i promise

no –

Samiya Bashir, “Unminded (LETHE)” © 2016 Left: Lethe, detail from Hades D.W.P., II, 2016 with “Unminded (LETHE)” on poemtag 20 21 Silted Brow, 2016 Acheron, 2016 charcoal, chalk, and acrylic on charcoal and chalk on found- linen and found-trunk drawer trunk drawer and sugar sacks

22 23 Above: Breach, 2016 charcoal, chalk, and acrylic on found seed sacks and linens Right: Staunch, 2016 charcoal, chalk, and acrylics on found seed sacks and linens; Installation view, Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College, walls stained with acrylic, Bushkill Creek water, silt, and mud by Alison Saar

24 25 Far left: Deluge, 2016 woodcut on hand-dyed paper Tandem Press

Backwater Blues, 2014 woodcut, chine collé Tandem Press

26 27 Morass, 2017 collagraph, serigraph, woodblock relief Experimental Printmaking Institute

Lethe, 2017 collagraph, serigraph, woodblock relief Experimental Printmaking Institute

28 29 mami wata (or, how to know a goddess when you see one)

mami wata (or, how to know a goddess when you see one)

A collaboration between Alison Saar and Evie Shockley

Alison Saar’s work is informed by i. a deity’s history many influences, including artistic and historical traditions of African art, ritual, if you show your tail and belief systems. In collaboration i’ll spank it, the mamas with poet Evie Shockley, she conjures would say to the daughters Mami Wata, the African and African Diaspora water spirit, a presence that meaning keep your behind can be felt in the exhibition. The result behind you, meaning ass- is the artist’s book mami wata (or how backwards is the wrong to know a goddess when you see one), 2016. Shockley wrote “mami wata (how direction. later, this threatened to know a goddess when you see one),” showing called up negro chaps a poem in three parts, for the book in paris, uniformed, fighting of the same name. The artist and the poet, in collaboration with Experimental wwii-era stereotypes. now tails Printmaking Institute master printer Jase speak of grown-ass women Clark, explored different ways to integrate who catch the secrets of fish, the poem with artwork. The result is a dynamic artist’s book: found boxes whose bare blue breasts hint holding different elements that invite at the source of their power viewer interaction. stirring beneath the water.

“i. a deity’s history,” etching, serigraph, hand painted and stained; Kinwashi rice paper; 2-page print, hand-sewn edge, rolled and tied.

Evie Shockley, mami wata (or how to know a goddess when you see one), © 2016

30 31 mami wata (or, how to know a goddess when you see one) mami wata (or, how to know a goddess when you see one)

ii. mami speaks

you make me with wood and the fear- sharpened knife’s edge. you make me with paint and awe. you carve me with snakes, spotted and diamond- iii. migrant’s prayer backed, you wrap me in their tails or give me my own. is that you, mami, wrapped in that soft you make me white fleece, casting that cold, hard glance a ritual figure: i am the second story in all directions? is that your spray swirling, of your masks. stinging, in the bitter wind, your blue bosom you make me with fabric and fiber glittering with diamonds thick as ice floes? with pigment, i recognize your excess in this, your muscle, braid and thread. you make me with but miss the wildness of your free: rushing myth, fantasy, mirror-gray green golden muddy into every and affection. you make me with dreads crevice, trailing delta silt in cool deadly and dread. you shape fingers as long as yournom de guerre—miss- me from copper, cut me from patterned issippi—over every surface, swallowing tin. you make me what you will. miss. fear. yearn to possess. with borrowed cultures, with local “ii. mami speaks,” unique found box, with inset Plexiglas, need. you make serigraph of Lethe; serigraph me your tormentor and collagraph text on and deliverer: i am stained fabric the demon-goddess of your home’s floral Far right: “iii. migrant’s prayer,” and perfumed altar, etching, serigraph, embossed i am the irresistible letter press text, (Rives BFK) cotton rag paper; etched and thief, who flashes embossed with letterpress; and fills your eyes folded and tied with hand- with my full breasts dyed cotton. before i rob you blind. you make me powerful as tides, with rushing rivers of hair, you flood me with mystery and desire, so—no wonder— i do what you have given me to do. 32 33 Installation view, The College of Wooster Art Museum (CWAM), Sussel Gallery.

34 35 “Mississippi River Flood Map of 1927, Showing Flooded Areas and Field of Operations Under Herbert Hoover,” illustrates the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau, Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico and includes the locations of levees, levee breaks, areas covered by Great Mississippi Flood of 1927: the first and second floods, Red Cross relief camps, reconstruction offices, and General Headquarters; Records of A 75-Mile Wide Inland Sea the Department of Commerce, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Record Group (RG), 23 Mississippi Flood Map 1927, NAID 2436794; National Archives at John M. Barry College Park, Md.

In August 1926, it began to rain. It rained hard, it three greatest rivers of North America—the Ohio, 70 miles over normally dry land from Vicksburg rained long, and it rained across all of the central the Missouri, and the Mississippi itself, draining to Monroe, Louisiana, by boat. This inland sea United States, pelting South Dakota, Nebraska, nearly 1 million square miles and stretching the width was silent; not the bark of a dog nor the lowing Kansas, and Oklahoma, then moving east into Iowa of the continent—was the highest ever known. of a cow was heard. Not counting the flooding of and Illinois. It rained so hard that—at a time of year On Christmas Day, 1926, both Nashville and such cities as Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, just along when rivers normally run their driest—on September Chattanooga—on two different rivers—flooded. On the lower Mississippi alone, the homes of more 1, water poured over the banks of dozens of streams New Year’s Day, 1927, the main river at Cairo, Illinois, than 920,000 people were damaged. Roughly 1 and flooded towns from Carroll, Iowa, to Peoria, broke flood stage, the earliest on record. In January, percent—perhaps more—of the entire population Illinois, 350 miles apart. On September 4, floods hit Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Louisville flooded. of the country was flooded. The number rescued parts of Nebraska, Kansas, and Indiana, while Iowa by boat from rooftops, trees, levee crowns, and And water still came. Tributaries drowned people and Illinois suffered anew. Those floods were on second stories reached 330,000.1 Hundreds of from Virginia to Oklahoma. While a vast snowpack tributaries to the Mississippi, which itself washed thousands of buildings were destroyed. No one melted, in April 1927 the Memphis Commercial-Appeal out bridges and railroads in the upper Midwest. A knows the death toll—the Red Cross claimed it warned, “The roaring Mississippi River, bank and levee separate storm in northwestern Iowa dumped 15 was only 246, the Weather Bureau said 500, and a full from St. Louis to New Orleans, is believed to be on inches of rain in three days, sending rivers exploding professional disaster expert estimated the dead in its mightiest rampage.” That spring saw five separate over their banks, drowning 10 people and inundating Mississippi alone at 1,000. storms, each of which was greater than any single 50,000 acres including Sioux City. storm in the preceding 10 years. And the Memphis Individuals, local communities, and entire states When the rains began they had relieved the region paper issued its warning before the greatest of those were devastated. But the biggest impact of the of the summer heat. Now they frightened. People storms. flood was on America itself. Far more than any could do nothing but watch their crops drown and other natural disaster, the 1927 Mississippi River A man standing on the levee then saw a river that their rivers rise; reminded of their own impotence and flood changed American history and, even though seemed the most powerful thing in the world. From of the power of God and nature, they prayed. forgotten today, imprinted itself on American the breadth of the continent, from New York to the culture. It did this in several ways. Rain continued. In October, the Neosho River in Rockies, down came the water, down as if poured Kansas and 600 miles to the east the Illinois River through a funnel, down into this immense writhing First, the flood settled an engineering argument reached their highest levels in history, with disastrous snake of a river, this Mississippi. over how to handle rivers. The U.S. Army Corps flooding. The Mississippi at Vicksburg had only broken of Engineers had pursued what it called a “levees- The sea had once reached north to present-day 30 feet on the gauge six times in history, followed each only” policy toward flood protection, refusing Cape Girardeau, Missouri, but the Mississippi system spring by major flooding. The river at Vicksburg had either to use reservoirs to prevent water from had deposited sediment to fill in the area from Cape never broken 31 feet in October. In October 1926, it entering the river or outlets to, where feasible, let Girardeau to the Gulf, nearly 35,000 square miles in broke 40 feet. water out of the river. Even a head of the Corps of seven states. That was the river’s natural flood plain. Precipitation continued into the winter over the Engineers had run experiments and concluded that In April, the river shouldered aside the levees and entire Mississippi Valley, which stretches from New “the investigations ... have rendered untenable the reclaimed more than three-quarters of its flood plain. York to the Rockies and drains 31 states and two scientific theory behind this policy.” Why the Corps Canadian provinces. The U.S. Weather Bureau noted The statistics recounting the damage are staggering. followed it in defiance of all scientific evidence is that the average reading through the last three months At its widest, the river created a vast inland sea more a case study of bureaucracy and turf warfare. After of 1926 on every single river gauge on each of the than 75 miles across—one could travel the 1927, engineers recognized that rivers had to be

36 37 The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 “Birdsong Camp at Cleveland, Miss., April 29, 1927, African-American flood refugees stand in line at Birdsong Camp. Tents in “Frontispiece—beginning of crevasse breaching levee at Mounds Landing, Miss.” background.” A catastrophic levee breach occurred on April 21, at Mounds Landing, Mississippi, sending water into the lower From: “The Floods of 1927 in the Mississippi Basin,” Frankenfeld, H.C., 1927 Monthly Weather Review Supplement No. 29 Yazoo Delta. Some areas would remain underwater for months. NOAA Archives Courtesy of the Archives and Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

accommodated and could not be constrained, and the of occupied Belgium, overseeing American food today.”2 Routinely, the press hailed Hoover as a hero called “the Tuskegee Machine.” Hoover promised to following year President Calvin Coolidge signed into production and distribution during World War I, and a savior. A California paper proclaimed, “He is the break up large plantations and turn sharecroppers law the Flood Control Act of 1928. The Army Corps of and feeding much of Europe immediately after the ablest and most efficient American in public life ... In into landowners. An ecstatic Moton told allies this Engineers developed flood control projects including war. John Maynard Keynes said he was “the only personal fitness for the presidency there is no other would be “more significant than anything which has locks and reservoir, spillways, channel improvements, man who emerged from the ordeal [of the Versailles American, even remotely, in Mr. Hoover’s class.”3 happened since Emancipation.” and floodgates and levees. The success of this peace conference] with an enhanced reputation.” Coverage like that prompted Hoover to confide In return, Moton would investigate and whitewash approach was demonstrated in 2011, when another He became known as “The Great Humanitarian.” to a friend, “I shall be the nominee, probably. It is a scandal over distribution of aid to black flood great flood came down the Mississippi and put almost President Warren G. Harding named him Secretary of practically inevitable.”4 victims—some were forced into virtual slave labor, or 10,000 square miles under water—virtually all of it by Commerce, and in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge put Hoover’s confidence was not based on the media charged for what should have been free, or given dregs design, in floodways used for farming. him in charge of the response to the flood. alone. He finally had a political base. That base was of food and supplies after white refugees got their Second, the flood elected a president and changed The flood was the biggest story of the year—bigger the African American community, then overwhelmingly pick—and support Hoover for president. That gave politics. Herbert Hoover was an immensely wealthy even than Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic—and Republican. Although African Americans could Hoover a solid base of convention delegates on which man, who owned mines and oil fields in America, it lasted for weeks. Hoover had said, “The world not vote in most elections in the South, they often to build. Hoover won the GOP nomination on the first Russia, China, Australia, South America, and Africa. lives by phrases,” and he had owned newspapers in controlled the Republican Party in southern states. ballot, then won a landslide election victory. He wanted to be president but, having left the Washington and Sacramento. He and his staff worked And there was one place they could vote—at the But Hoover broke his word, ironically because of United States soon after graduating from Stanford diligently to exploit the coverage; no newspaper was Republican National Convention for the presidential his landslide. Since Reconstruction, no Republican and not returning until the country entered World too small. Hoover personally communicated with nominee. presidential candidate had carried a single southern War I, he had no political base. Indeed, he had not weekly papers from Arizona, Texas, Washington, Hoover made a deal with Robert Moton, the state. Largely because the 1928 Democratic even voted in a presidential election until 1920. But Nebraska, and Indiana. James Carville said, “Hoover most powerful African American political figure and candidate Al Smith was Catholic, Hoover carried he had accomplished much, organizing the feeding had a better press operation than any politician I know head of both the Tuskegee Institute and what was five states—Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, and 38 39 North Carolina—and GOP political operatives tried to Smith to record “Backwater Blues.” Just days after reimbursement from the Red Cross for use in attitude also was demonstrated by the one source create a Republican Party—an all-white party—in the the single biggest levee break—on April 21 more of its tents and field kitchens. of public opinion that is measurable: newspaper South that could defeat Democrats. Hoover pursued water poured out of the river in that single breach When it came to recovery, the story was the same. editorials. Hoover’s staff combed hundreds of this policy and never mentioned his own proposal to at Mounds Landing, Mississippi, than five times The federal government spent nothing to help these newspapers and reported that, whether papers were transform sharecroppers into landowners again; he the average flow of Niagara Falls—Lonnie Johnson people and the devastated states recover—the Democratic or Republican, “at least four-fifths of the also nominated a man to the Supreme Court so racist recorded “South Bound Water.” A year later he agricultural economy in parts of seven states and editorials coming in” demanded federal action. “There that a Senate controlled by his own party rejected him. released “Broken Levee Blues,” singing about being the banks that had financed the agriculture were continues to be considerable criticism of the attitude 8 Moton and other black leaders regarded all this as forced from his home to sandbag the levee. Charley destroyed. Coolidge not only ignored numerous of the President,” Hoover’s staff reported. a personal betrayal. In 1932, Moton had no love for Patton recorded the anger of virtual imprisonment pleas to visit the flooded territory, he refused even to Because of Coolidge’s intense opposition, Congress Franklin Roosevelt, saying if he “has done anything in “High Everywhere” in 1929, and in that same year autograph pictures of himself to be auctioned off at did not act to directly help individuals or businesses. for the Negro as Governor of New York, I have not Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie’s “When fundraisers. Hoover personally urged bankers and big But in 1928, Congress did pass the Jones-Reid Bill, heard of it.”5 Nonetheless, he and his allies refused the Levee Breaks” described the desperate conditions businessmen to privately finance recovery efforts, but a massive flood control act—the most expensive to endorse Hoover for reelection; their emotional of levee work. At least one black gospel song blamed the government did nothing. domestic program the federal government had ever sinners for the flood. At least several dozen blues connection to the party of Lincoln had snapped. And, for the first time, Americans thought that launched—which set a precedent in reordering state songs recorded the pain and tragedy, a history There were three other impacts of the flood, impacts doing nothing was wrong. Months of media coverage and federal responsibility. that lived on in Randy Newman’s great 1974 song, that changed the culture. of hundreds of thousands of desperate Americans In short, the 1927 flood had vastly more substantive “Louisiana 1927.”6 The “Great Migration” of blacks out of the South changed the country’s view of government’s role. impact on the nation than any other disaster in U.S. But the most important effect of the 1927 flood had started earlier, but had died off during the early In 1927, John Parker was no longer governor of history. Yet it is less well-known than the San Francisco was also the subtlest: it changed the way Americans 1920s. Yet flooded areas in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana but was in charge of the state’s recovery. In earthquake, the Chicago fire, even the Johnstown viewed government’s responsibility in a time of crisis. Louisiana had counties with the highest percentages 1922, he had refused to seek aid. Now, with 200,000 flood. That fact in itself is a lesson; to understand Although there is no scientific polling data on the of African Americans in the nation. Penned up in Louisianans homeless and destitute, he asked for all history, one must look deep. question, existing policy and newspaper editorial refugee camps—called “concentration camps”— the aid he could get from every quarter. That reversal commentary suggest strongly that most Americans in patrolled by armed guards as if they were prisoners, the 1920s felt the government had no responsibility mistreated and cheated out of Red Cross supplies, to provide any direct assistance to individuals. There they had nothing to go back to—the largest cotton was certainly a widespread sense that people who plantation in the world produced only 44 bales of sought government help were at best weak and at cotton in 1927—and they had nothing to go back with. worst immoral, and government policy reflected such Notes In Arkansas (no figures are available for other states) sentiments. In 1905, a yellow fever epidemic erupted a family of four, after having their cabin and everything 1. Marion Bragg, Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi 6. For a detailed discography, see Richard M. Mizelle Jr., Backwater in New Orleans. Public health experts knew how to River (Vicksburg: Mississippi River Commission, 1977), 91. Blues: The Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the African American they owned washed away, received $27 worth of tools, contain yellow fever, but before Theodore Roosevelt’s 2. Author’s personal communication with James Carville Imagination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014); for clothes, furniture, food, seed, and supplies when a detailed discussion of blues and gospel written about the flood of 3. “The Mississippi Flood and Mr. Hoover’s Part in Relief Work,” administration would send public health experts to 1927, see David Evans, “High Water Everywhere: Blues and Gospel they left a refugee camp. So they didn’t go back. news summaries for May 23, 1927, Hoover Library. help, it required New Orleans to pay $250,000 in Commentary on the 1927 Mississippi River Flood,” in Nobody Knows By hundreds, by thousands, by tens of thousands, advance to cover the expenses. And in 1922, when 4. Craig Lloyd, Aggressive Introvert: A Study of Herbert Hoover and Where the Blues Come From: Lyrics and History, ed. Robert Springer they left. They went north to Chicago, packing Public Relations Management, 1912–1932 (Columbus: Ohio State (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006), 3–75. a flood in Louisiana had made 40,000 homeless, University Press, 1972), 84. Illinois Central trains, and west to Los Angeles, and 7. New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 29, 1922. Gov. John Parker refused even to ask the Red Cross 5. Donald Lisio, Hoover, Blacks, and Lily Whites: A Study of Southern everywhere in between. In total nearly 1 million blacks 8. Press summary, undated early June (probably June 7) and June 17, for help, saying, “Louisiana has issued no call for aid Strategies (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1985), 269. left the South in the immediate aftermath of the flood, 1927, Hoover Library. and will not.”7 That attitude was reflected in federal the vast majority from flooded areas. Then, in the policy toward flood relief. In 1927, the Red Cross fed 1930s, this migration dropped to a trickle. over 600,000 people, some for a year, and more than Meanwhile, the horror people went through seemed 300,000 lived as refugees in tent cities. All the money made for the blues, and the blues told much of the for this was raised privately. Not only did the federal John M. Barry is an award-winning author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed story. Even before the Mississippi itself breached the government spend nothing to feed, clothe, and America. Rising Tide was the winner of the 1998 Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians, named in levees, flooding along tributaries had caused Bessie shelter these people, the army demanded 2005 by the NY Public Library as one of the 50 “most memorable” books of the preceding 50 years, and was on the NY Times “notable” book list.

40 41 Checklist

Breach, 2016 Acheron, 2016 mami wata (or how to know a goddess wood, ceiling tin, found trunks, charcoal and chalk on found-trunk when you see one), 2016 washtubs, and miscellaneous objects drawer and sugar sacks Collaboration between Alison Saar 155 x 60 x 51 in. (393.7 x 152.4 x 129.5 cm) 29.5 x 16 x 4 in. (74.9 x 40.6 x 10.2 cm) and poet Evie Shockley “mami wata (or how to know a Black Bottom Stomp, 2016 Silted Brow, 2016 goddess when you see one),” a wood, acrylic, ceiling tin, silt, tar, and wax charcoal, chalk, and acrylic on poem in three parts by Shockley. 30 x 9 x 7 in. (76.2 x 22.9 x 17.8 cm) linen and found-trunk drawer Unique artist’s book consists of a 17 x 27 x 3 in. (43.2 x 68.6 x 7.6 cm) Silttown Shimmy, 2016 found-box with cover serigraph of Lethe wood, ceiling tin, enamel paint, tar, and silt Hades D.W.P, II, 2016 and “ii. mami speaks” on stained fabric. 28 x 8 ½ x 5 ½ in. (71.1 x 21.6 x 14 cm) etched glass jars, water, dye, wood, Within the box: “i. a deity’s history” private collection, Topanga, Calif. cloth and ink transfer, electronics, (hand-sewn two-part print, etching, found ladles and cups serigraph poem, paint and stain, rice Backwater Boogie, 2015 Poems by Samiya Bashir paper); “iii. migrant’s prayer” (etching, acrylic, gesso, and charcoal on overall: 30 x 50 x 16 in. (76.2 x 127 x 40.6 cm) serigraph, embossed lettering); three found sugar sacks and linens dissolvable prints (images derived from 50 x 27 in. (127 x 68.6 cm) Backwater Blues, 2014 poem); colophon (collagraph, serigraph, woodcut, chine collé hand-sewn binding, with text of poem) 3 3 MuddyWater Mambo, 2015 27 /8 x 14 /8 in. (69.5 x 36.5 cm) signed by Saar and Shockley; and small acrylic, gesso, and charcoal on found Tandem Press cloth bag with display hardware and and dyed denim, sugar sacks, and linens Edition 6 of 30 note from Saar. 50 x 25 in. (127 x 63.5 cm) overall size varies, Deluge, 2016 approx. 10 x 8 x 1 in. (24.4 x 20.32 x 2.54 cm.) Sluefoot Slide, 2015 woodcut on hand-dyed paper Experimental Printmaking Institute acrylic, gesso, and charcoal on 23 ½ x 14 ½ in. (59.7 x 36.8 cm) Edition 20/20 found sugar sacks and linens Tandem Press courtesy of EPI and the artist 53 x 26 ½ in. (134.6 x 67.3 cm) Edition of 30

Swampside Shag, 2015 Morass, 2017 acrylic, gesso, and charcoal on found collagraph, serigraph, woodblock relief and dyed denim, sugar sacks, and linens 9 x 11 in. (22.86 x 27.94 cm) Dimensions are noted above height x width 48 x 27 in. (121.9 x 68.6 cm) Experimental Printmaking Institute x depth. Unless otherwise noted, all artwork Edition of 45 is courtesy of the artist and L.A. Louver, Venice, Calif. Artwork exhibited in each Breach, 2016 courtesy of EPI and the artist charcoal, chalk, and acrylic on location might vary from this checklist. found seed sacks and linens Lethe, 2017 65 x 30 in. (165.1 x 76.2 cm) collagraph, serigraph, woodblock relief 12 x 11 in. (30.48 x 27.94 cm) Staunch, 2016 Experimental Printmaking Institute charcoal, chalk, and acrylic on Edition of 45 found seed sacks and linens courtesy of EPI and the artist 64 x 27 in. (162.6 x 68.6 cm)

Left: Harold Fisk, The Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River, 1944, Plate 7 of 15, the maps visually track the meanderings of the Mississippi from “ancient courses” through 1765, 1820, 1880, and 1944; Maps produced and published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi River Commission, lmvmapping.erdc.usace.army.mil/

42 43 Alison Saar, Breach, 2016, detail of back, the texture of the rusted ceiling tiles suggests ritual scarification. Alison Saar

Alison Saar was born and raised in Laurel Canyon, Saar revealed Embodied, a new public work, in Los Her association with Lafayette College began in 2014 as a California, the daughter of renowned artist Angeles in 2015. Commissioned by the Los Angeles residency artist at the Experimental Print Institute (EPI), during and painter/conservator Richard Saar. She received a BA in County Arts Commission, the 12-foot-tall sculpture is which she produced two prints, Fall and Brier Patch Blues, for the studio art and art history from Scripps College, Claremont, located in front of the Hall of Justice. Saar’s prints were David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland. She returned in California, and an MFA from Otis Parsons Institute (now Otis featured in a solo exhibition at the National Museum of 2016 for a collaboration with poet Evie Shockley on a limited edition College of Art and Design). She has received two fellowships Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., through Oct. 2, artist’s book, “mami wata (or how to know a goddess when you from the National Endowment for the Arts (1984 and 1988), 2016. Silt, Soot and Smut, an enlarged version of Breach, see one).” The artist and poet, in collaboration with EPI master and was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial was shown at L.A. Louver, Venice, California, in 2016, and printer Jase Clark, experimented with several ways to incorporate Foundation Fellowship in 1989, Flintridge Foundation Award The Nature of Us will be at the Harvey B. Gantt Center, the poem with artwork. The result is a dynamic artist’s book: a for Visual Artists in 2000, Joan Mitchell Foundation Award Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2017. found box holding different elements that invites viewer interaction. in 1998, and Joan Mitchell Artist in Residence in 2013. Saar was named one of 50 USA Fellows in the United States Artists program in 2012.

44 45 Alison Saar with “Dynamics of Sculpture” students. Installation view with students’ sculptures.

Films: Creative Writing: The Great Flood, Bill Morrison’s 2014 film about the 1927 A Six-Word Story project, the suggested story topic was flood, and Andy Goldsworthy’sRiver and Tides presented water, co-sponsored with Department of English. Stories in classroom screenings were collected and displayed in two locations on campus: adjacent to the Grossman Gallery in the Williams Visual Lectures by Lafayette Faculty: Arts Building and at the Williams Center for the Arts. D.C. Jackson (History) on the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, the subject of his recently published book, Heavy Ground Arno River Flood Commemoration: Wendy Wilson-Fall (Africana Studies), “River Slaves and Florence Under Water: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Ocean Mariners” Great Flood, curator Diane Cole Ahl, Department of Art. This photog- Breach: Left Behind, 2016. raphy exhibition in Lafayette’s Skillman Library featured another Dru Germanoski (Geology and Environmental Science and devastating flood—the Arno River in November 1966. The commem- Studies), “Persistent Flood Hazards in the Delaware and oration also included a screening of Florence: Days of Destruction Mississippi Rivers” (1966), a documentary film by Franco Zeffirelli, and eyewitness David Brandes (Civil Engineering and Environmental accounts by art historians David G. Wilkins and Ann Thomas Wilkins. Confluence Science and Studies), “Understanding the ‘100-Year’ September–December 2016 Flood on Our Changing Planet” In the Classroom: Among the classes the artist visited was “Dynamics of Guest Lecturers: Sculpture,” joined by high school students in the Community- This wide-ranging series of interdisciplinary programs associated with rivers and inspired by Alison Saar’s Breach was John M. Barry, author of the award-winning Rising Tide: The Based Teaching Program. Students created clay heads which sponsored by the Lafayette Art Galleries, academic departments and programs, and community organizations. Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America, and were incorporated into the exhibition (see photos above). “Can New Orleans Survive: Coastal Destruction, the Future of Louisiana, and The Most Ambitious Environmental Lawsuit Ever” Community Partnerships: Dance: Susan Kart (Africana Studies and Art and Architecture, The Gallery at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Easton: Lehigh University), “Wade in the Water: Beyoncé, Mami community artists’ exhibition, Water|Rivers|Floods. Breach: Left Behind, by choreographer Jessica Warchal- to the lives of African Americans, and Warchal-King’s own experiences Wata, and Black Feminist Power” King in collaboration with Alison Saar as a female artist and a witness to the central Texas floods of 2016. Arts Community of Easton (ACE): Alison Saar artist’s talk Jessica Warchal-King of The Embodiment Project She asked, “What’s left behind after a natural disaster? How do Evie Shockley (essayist and poet, Rutgers University), author Riverside Festival of the Arts, Easton: Preview reception of Philadelphia, created this site-specific dance experience. we define and determine what has value?” of “mami wata (or how to know a goddess when you see one)” Breach exhibition for Festival participants. Performed in the Grossman Gallery September 18 Audience members, some of whom had been affected by the Bethany Wiggin (German and the Penn Program in Nurture Nature Center, Easton: Open Mic night began with and October 1, it featured original music by Delaware River floods of 2004, 2005, 2006, and/or 2011, were invited Environmental Humanities, University of Pennsylvania), river/flood-themed work: participants presented original Muhlenberg College musician/composer Paul Fejko, to participate in a movement exercise to embody their own ideas of “Forgotten Places, Radical Hope, and the Environmental poems, songs, or narratives; contributed six-word stories. professional dancers Laura Baehr, Jennifer Yackel, and the importance of water, feeling left behind, and defining what they Humanities: Travels on an Industrial River” Saar was the invited guest. Katherine Kiefer Stark (The Embodiment Project), and value as individuals and as a community. Chautauqua at the Forks of the Delaware: Book discussion dancers from the Lafayette and Easton communities: Breach: Left Behind and Warchal-King’s Movement Meditation Concert: of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me and related Kelly Prentice, Nandini Sikand, and Carrie Rohman. Mandala residency were funded by a generous grant from the Lafayette Cultural Programs: Harmonious Visions: topics. Lafayette first-year students who read the book over One of Warchal-King’s ongoing creative interests is the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation called Choreographers on Campus, Reflections on Nature Through the Fabric of Sight the summer as preparation for orientation were the facilitators interconnectedness of people and their environments. Her an initiative of Lafayette College and the Lehigh Valley Dance and Sound by composer Frances White with images for the community discussion. The Breach exhibition and issues inspiration for this dance grew from Saar’s research on Consortium (LVDC). Part of the work was developed during by Jim Toia. it raises inspired the Chautauqua group to organize a monthly American rivers, flooding, and their historical relationship PhiladelphiaDance.org In Process residency. fall reading series about African American experiences.

46 47 Selected Bibliography Acknowledgments for more information on the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927

In addition to individuals noted elsewhere, I wish to History, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, acknowledge Lafayette’s Donald C. Jackson, David Brandes, Environmental Studies and Sciences, English, Women and Books Articles Documentaries Dru Germanoski, David Veshosky, Nestor Armando Gil— Gender Studies, Max Kade Center for German Studies, enthusiastic supporters of the semester-long “Confluence” Foreign Languages and Literatures, Film and Media Barry, John M. Evans, David. Gazit, Chana. programs; Wendy Wilson-Fall’s participation and advice was Studies, Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI), Skillman Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood “High Water Everywhere: Blues and Gospel “Fatal Flood,” American Experience. invaluable. I also thank David Sunderlin, Kira Lawrence, Mary Library, offices of the President and Provost), and the of 1927 and How It Changed America. Commentary on the 1927 Mississippi Directed by Chana Gazit and Roth, Lawrence Malinconico, Diane Cole Ahl, Diane W. Shaw, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. River Flood,” in Nobody Knows Where David Steward. Arlington, Va.: Elaine Stomber, Robert Blount, Robert S. Mattison, Jim Toia, by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National the Blues Come From: Lyrics and History, Public Broadcasting Service, 2001, Karina Skvirsky, Arthur Kney, Benjamin Cohen, Katherine Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. edited by Robert Springer, 3–75. Jackson: pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/ Daniel, Pete. Groo, Andy Smith, Robert S. Mattison, Curlee Raven Holton, University Press of Mississippi, 2006. films/flood/. Deep’n As It Come: The 1927 Jase Clark, Alex Hendrickson, Jennifer Kelly, Hollis Ashby, Michiko Okaya, Director Mississippi River Flood. New York: Megan Fernandez, Lee Upton, and Pat Donohue—just Lafayette Art Galleries Oxford University Press, 1977. Fulton Minor, DoVeanna S. Gustave, Carl. a few of many faculty and administration members who “‘Come Through the Water, Come “The Great Flood of 1927,” When contributed to making the exhibition, “Confluence,” and Through the Flood’: Black Women’s Weather Changed History, directed Saar’s residency a success. Mizelle Jr., Richard M. Gospel Practices and Social Critique.” by Carl Gustave. Atlanta, Ga.: Many thanks to individuals and community partners Backwater Blues: The Mississippi Journal of Religion & Society 13 (2011): 1–26, Weather Channel, 2008, who organized events related to including Charles Flood of 1927 and the African Breach moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2011/2011-42.pdf. youtu.be/hgPPTQPPM9c. Dickerson, Steven Moyer, Andrew T. Gerns, and Mike Dowd American Imagination. Minneapolis: of Chautauqua at the Forks of the Delaware; Rachel Hogan University of Minnesota Press, 2014. and Keri Maxfield of Nurture Nature Center, Easton; Danny Morrison, Bill. Moyer of the Arts Community of Easton (ACE); and Ellen The Great Flood, music by Bill Frisell, Parrish, Susan Scott. Shaughnessy and Lady Colleen Heller of Riverside Festival of produced by Phyllis Oyama. The Flood Year 1927: the Arts. A Cultural History. Princeton, N.J.: Copyright: Hypnotic Films, Friz-tone Princeton University Press, 2016. Music. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Icarus Films Thanks to copy editor Stevie O. Daniels; catalogue release, 2013. designer Heather Reinert; photographers Jase Clark, Jeff McLane, Doug McGlumphy, Paul Miller, Charles Stonewall, John Wynn; Lafayette registrar Ellen Sapienza; preparator Steve Gamler; Mike Breiner of facilities operations; Jennifer Philburn, director of marketing; EPI master printers Jase Clark and Curlee Raven Holton; Tyler Anema, Famous Smoke Shop; Joe Dunbar, Lower Mississippi Aluvial Valley (LMV), Army Corps of Engineers; and Kimberly Davis and Jillian Griffith at L.A. Louver, Venice, California. Alison Saar’s residency and related programs were funded by an arts infusion grant made possible by generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Choreographers on Campus, the Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Visiting Artist Series (Department of Art), the David L. Sr. and Helen J. Temple Lecture Series (Africana Studies), Lafayette Art Galleries, campus departments and programs (Geology,

Alison Saar, Cocytus, detail from Hades D.W.P., II, 2016 48 49 The Grossman Artist-in-Residence and Exhibition Series was established by Richard A. Grossman, a 1964 graduate of Lafayette College, and his wife, Rissa W. Grossman, to provide opportunities for intensive interaction between students and major 20th- and 21st-century artists. The series also supports the presentation of significant exhibitions.

Alison Saar (2016)* Sam Gilliam (2001)* Judy Pfaff (2016)* Ann Hamilton (2000) Audrey Flack (2015)* Gregory Gillespie (1999)* Pope.L (2012)* In Search of Master Artists: Selections Terry Winter (2011)* from the Moore Collection of African Chakaia Booker (2010)* American Art (1998) Kay WalkingStick (2009)* Leon Golub (1997) Xu Bing (2008)* Elizabeth Murray (1996)* Glenn Ligon (2006)* Richard Anuszkiewicz (1995)* Fred Wilson (2005) Robert Beauchamp (1994) Stephen Antonakos (2004)* Faith Ringgold (1993) Ursula von Rydingsvard (2003)* Dorothea Rockburne (1992) Frank Stella (2002)*

The Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Artist-in-Residence Series has brought to campus some of the most significant artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The strength of the residency lies not only in the quality of the artists but also in the intensity of their interaction with students. For more than two decades, the program has profoundly influenced Lafayette students. Over the years, Richard and Rissa have been unfailing in their support, advice, and encouragement, including support of the gallery program in the Art Department’s Williams Visual Arts Building. On behalf of the Art Department, I thank them for being such great friends to the arts and to the College. Robert S. Mattison Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art

* Indicates an exhibition of the artist’s work

Photo credits

Jase Clark, Courtesy of Experimental Printmaking Institute, Lafayette College, pp. 28–30 Doug McGlumphy, Courtesy of The College of Wooster Art Museum, pp. 34–35 Jeff McLane, Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, California, pp. 3, 8, 12–16, 22, 23, 45 Paul Miller, p. 33 Michiko Okaya, pp. 20, 31, 32 Alison Saar, p. 44 Charles Stonewall, cover, pp. 46, 47L John Wynn, 1, 4–5, 17, 18–19, 24–25, 47R, 49 Cover: closeup of wall in Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College; walls stained with acrylic, Bushkill Creek water, silt, and mud by Alison Saar

50